Gresik targets 19.6Mt of production in 2011

PT Semen Gresik is targeting producing up to 19.6Mt of cement this year, up nine per cent from last year’s production of 18Mt.

"We will try to maintain our market stable at around 41 per cent," the company’s investor relations official, Agung Wiharto, here on Thursday.

Wiharto said until the first semester of 2011 Semen Gresik’s production had risen by 9.4 per cent to 9.2Mt while its market share dropped from 42 per cent to 40 per cent.

Wiharto said the drop in the market share was caused by slow consumption in East Java in the first quarter. The region has so far been its biggest market basis.

"Rain falls in East Java is quite high in the first quarter so that infrastructure development is hindered. As a result cement demand is not too strong. On the contrary demand in West Java is rising sharply," he said.